My Own GTD Sprints

Since it has been asked for in english by Yves Hanoulle, this short post will be in english ;-)

I started this summer a very simple experiment.
I think that this should sound familliar to anybody practicing agile.

I had for year 2011 a kind of « Getting Things Done » list (as a matter of fact, it is a xmind map, much easier to group, split, … than an excel file).

Now I have also iterations, of 2 weeks. When I start an iteration, I select entries in my GTD list and I split them in concrete short term tasks (that I will be able to do in 2 weeks delay, knowing the fact that I am only working part time on my personal GTD), my sprint list.

Items in my sprint list are more concrete, more simple, don’t need long term thinking.

During my sprint, I take a greate pleasure checking items in the list to mark the fact that they are done. Or de-scoping them to further iterations.

If I find new ideas, I add them to the global GTD list, and I try not to change the scope of the sprint.

What is fun is to feel the power of having 2 level a granularity (PBL Items/Tasks) also for « personal » tasks.

Moreover, the use of a mind map is not innocent : it also helps to collapse items in order to hide their details and get a more synthetic view. Sounds like epics, no ?

It’s like a training where the trainer would ask you :

  • Imagine you make a list of things to do this year.
  • Detail them.
  • Arrange them.
  • Then select some of them for the next two weeks.
  • Split them into concret tasks.
  • Manage them
  • Look at what you have done at the end of the sprint.
  • Retrospect.
  • Start the next sprint.

Except I do it for real.

And it works !

A propos pierrefauvel

People and It. Pragmatic. Hard core Zen. Human and Social systems.
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Un commentaire pour My Own GTD Sprints

  1. now that is what we callin dutch « u vraagt wij draaien »: you ask we deliver…

    thanks for the explaination.

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